Jackthestripper: I liked the article – But it seems that Funakoshi, while being caught unawares, was prepared,...
RickMatz: Some of your readers may not be aware of just how rare is the title of “Hanshi.” In the aikido...
friqui: Brilliant! Enjoyed it a lot!
Matt__A: No argument here Tom – the attacker definitely does not have expert level experience. I actually think...
tom611: This is a joke!The guy trying to perform a lock is putting his own arm in the way so he can not perform a...

Could MMA Be Saving Karate?

January 5, 2010 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: MMA, Martial Arts, Opinion, karate, modern arts

Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s karate was the hotness. It was just starting to come over from Okinawa and karate fighters were seen as some of the toughest hombres in town. People often spoke of karateka in semi-hushed voices as it was rumored they could punch through boards, shatter skulls, and rip out people’s still beating hearts (or was that Indiana Jones II)? Anyway, the word on the street was “karate is the bomb”.

That fame grew rapidly. Soon the first few teachers that had trained in Okinawa and Japan were opening schools in the U.S. Some of those schools achieved high visibility and grew quickly, often finding that many more faces were popping in and out than were expected. Some of the more business savvy teachers realized that they could make quite a profit by charging testing fees, and promoting people through a series of ranks.

That first generation of karateka were being watched closely by a different class of people – the financial opportunists. These crafty individuals took the notion of money making through karate and multiplied it ten-fold by creating contracts, a myriad of belts, and get-rank-quick factories. They then expanded out into whole federations and took their businesses nationwide. When that happened, exposure for karate hit a climax – you couldn’t walk down the street of any small town in America without tripping over a couple of 9th and 10th dans.

Unfortunately, while karate was riding it’s sugar high, many people forgot to stop and notice that the quality (on a nationally broad level, not to say ALL quality) was declining at a rate exponential to the increase in quantity. Eventually, just like any kind of currency that becomes too abundant, the value of karate rank plummeted. A black belt was no longer awed and admired, but chuckled at because Lil 12-year-old-Johnny down the street had one too.

But then…just a few short years ago…something happened. Karate’s reign at the top of martial arts attention (alongside Tae Kwon Do) sputtered. It had fallen for a common trap – it had struggled with its own success.

MMA – The New Hotness

“Have you seen UFC?” people would ask each other in semi-hushed voices. “Those guys go into a cage and just duke it out. It’s for real. None of that hocus pocus nonsense, just real fighting.”

MMA, or mixed martial arts, is what many of the cage fighters in UFC professed to practice. In fact, many of those fighters were inspired by Bruce Lee, who had taken the first chunk out of traditional martial arts in the late 70’s. After Bruce had died his eclectic ideas took a hit and were swallowed back up by corny Kung Fu and Karate action. But UFC was a resurgence, and one that was gritty and real like the action in Bruce’s movies.

The UFC started off small and underground but became a sensation in no time. It’s popularity skyrocketed as Dana White (owner/founder) proved to be a marketing and business savant. He parlayed his federation into extremely profitable Pay Per View events. And then, in a move that left many ‘big wigs’ scratching their heads, he created a show on regular television for free consumption.

Nowadays you can’t go to any athletic store without seeing Tapout or Affliction gear. Stars like Anderson Silva are higher profile than any current boxer, and more MMA fighters are household names than ever before. Truly MMA’s star has risen and exploded.

But…looming in the murky shadows…

The Profiteers Were Ready For MMA

This is America, and to quote South Park, “if you don’t like it you can just giiit eeeouut.” In America capitalism is the rule, and martial arts profiteers know that. The people that spotted the trend of karate and capitalized on it are still around, or at least have their share of imitators and proteges.

MMA’s high profile has made it the go-to style for many potential students looking to get into martial arts, and if more people are looking for it, more profiteers are looking to give it to them. The problem, as you might imagine, is quality. There are a lot of good schools out there that teach MMA, or BJJ with MMA, or even traditional martial arts with MMA infused. These schools are building good extension programs and good core programs. But, just like with karate, they have to compete with chains, franchises, and quickie wannabes that are looking to cash in on that hot MMA buck.

In fact, in many strip malls and other locations you can see a direct transfer of where a karate school was, and where an MMA/BJJ school is now. Some entire franchises have gone ahead and made the switch.

It’s a bit painful, but it’s reality.

So How is MMA Saving Karate?

When karate was the main game in town, there were tons and tons of voices trying to get your attention. Everybody was yelling about this style or that style and what amazing secrets you could learn there. The high quality instructors who were focused primarily on quality could rarely compete. It looked kinda like this:

A bit disorienting isn’t it? Even in just this little collage it is easy to miss Tsuyoshi Chitose, the mild mannered man sitting in seiza. In this way it has been easy to miss really good karate amongst the white noise on a national level. Just imagine this picture only 10,000 times larger.

All of that nonsense is still around of course, but MMA is pulling more and more of the voices away. The blabbering snake oil salesmen are pitching a new and more attractive product. Because of that…karate seems to be quieting down a little. Just enough to start letting through those voices that have a lot of amazing things to say.

I’ve Seen it Happening

Have you ever visited a martial arts forum? There are some high quality ones out there, but generally they are places for people to yell at each other with no one ever really listening. A few years ago the style wars were raging full force in karate forums. If you wanted a reasonable discussion with people who were deeply skilled and invested in the arts, you were going to the wrong place.

One of the problems was the newness of technology and the high learning curve. Many of the most experienced karateka were not tech savvy enough like the youngsters who were bombarding the message boards. Now new technologies have been put in place that are so smart and intuitive that anyone can use them. Twitter and Facebook, for example.

I’ve started a community on Facebook, and with only slight moderation, I’ve found myself interacting with a whole bunch of bright and skilled martial artists. It’s nothing special that I did – we all simply found each other and realized it wasn’t a crazy notion for martial artists to learn from each other. Many (but not all of course) flaming and trolling fanboys have moved on to arguing about MMA matches, which has cleared a gap for traditional martial artists. Not to mention more and more great martial arts bloggers have started up their own sites to make high quality information available.

In the real world, karate instructors who truly and deeply love their art are persevering despite the lower number of total students walking in the door. Since those high quality instructors are the ones sticking around, the odds are increasing ever so slightly that interested students could find themselves learning real karate. If that’s the case, they have a much better chance at sticking around and becoming thoughtful traditional martial artists themselves. As such, there is a chance for them to perpetuate the good kind of karate rather than the paper thin kind.

Until Next Time

To the BJJ and MMA practitioners out there who are deeply invested in their art – you should know that you have some brothers in arms over in TMA (traditional martial arts) who know about the struggle you are going through and will continue to go through.

Hopefully we can all meet on the other side when the next big thing hits…whatever that may be.

Share This (Good Karma Guaranteed):

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 and is filed under MMA, Martial Arts, Opinion, karate, modern arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Artur Pinto

Realy like the articale. If you do what you like, that's what counts. And the art does not make the fighter. Figthers make the arts.

Matt__A

Thanks for your visit artur!

zack822

As a traditional Ryu Kyu Kenpo Studier who has switched to a highly Chinese based art and who has been thru the large "MCdojo's" i must say that politics play a huge part of the falling of TKD and Karate..

serpentstaff

When I saw the headline, I expected something different, and clicked here with some skepticism... but I should have known better, because you always put up thoughtful, intelligent posts. Interesting perspective; thanks.

Matt__A

Haha, yea when I made the title of this article, I knew it was a little on the edge, so I fully expected some raised eyebrows and concerns. Thank you for reading it anyway!

jaic

I also have to say that it's thanks to fighters in the UFC such as Lyoto Machida that has studied traditional Karate from his father and bringing that element to the competition that has also helped promote it as a strong fighting form again.

People see him fight in the arena and think "wow i wanna fight like him" and with Joe Rogen screaming in a mic about how awesome a karateka Machida is it is a big promotion for it. I've seen that karate schools in Australia have become more popular again thanks to that one man, of course the pupils aren't going to have the whole and sole correct intentions for joining at first but eventually through discipline in the art they realise that it's all about the respect instead of the destruction.

Tinker

The article triggered a question in my mind: In today's commercial world, how would a novice student identify a genuine master? Any thoughts around that?

What would be a good way to seek a serious master who is interested in a coaching/ mentoring space for a student who is keen on mastering the art.. be it MMA or Karate or whatever the path.

Matt__A

Great question tinker. I'd have to dedicate a whole post to that to really give it justice.

John W. Zimmer

Hi Matt,

This was an interesting post... so without going into the profit motive of all businesses or the moral high road of clubs versus businesses (plenty of room for discourse there), addressing generically the good versus bad in karate, kick boxing, mma, boxing or whatever fighting style you'd like to apply this rubric to:

I'd say the Peter Principal applies... you know 80% is worthless and 20% is worthwhile. This is true throughout life too... It is a good description of a college degree too.

I thought I'd offer a counter point or devils advocated position if you will. As always - interesting Post Matt.

Matt__A

There is definite intellectual wiggle room here John. Your point is a valid one.

bushidoman

Hey Matt. Great Post! Although I do have to say that the more recent notoriety with MMA is pulling the martial arts from its original purpose-real world combat.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t blame the MMA exclusively for this phenomenon. This has been slowly happening since the martial arts reached a mainstream status. I believe that most of the problem is due to the black belt factory dojos that are more interested in the money you can make over the art itself, and the liability risks of teaching potentially lethal techniques to the general public.

I just see so many people who have studied the martial arts for years and still can’t fight their way out of a paper bag. In some senses, it has become more about an aerobic workout and a sport than a fighting art.

Matt__A

Yea you're definitely right - Sport is an extremely strong force and is pulling attention away from core martial art principles. Like yourself I don't blame MMA exclusively; the trend I saw happening was that some of the sport and profit lovers that latched on to karate are shifting their eyes toward MMA as the new hot ticket.

My big question was - could this ultimately be a good thing for karate as it might give the classical followers of karate and budo a little breathing space to have more of an impact and influence? Of course I don't have the answer, but I sure hope so.

Sean @ Gisoku Budo

Brill post, I'd never thought of the current state of martial arts trends this way!

Matt__A

Thanks Sean! I know this article is a little bit from left field, but I figured it would be a fun mental workout to try and see what some broad trends are doing.

branden

I thought you made that Tiger sign yourself, until I just went to their site..... *shiver*

Bob

I also saw a license plate on the way to work this morning, "MMAMAN" Took me a minute; but, that is how popular it is.

I guess you missed Tiger Schulmann's Krav Maga. ;)

Any avenue that generates interest in martial arts is OK with me. But, if this is the "Face" of martial arts, we still have a long road ahead to keep explaining the benefits on traditional martial arts.

Matt__A

I did miss that Bob!

You're definitely right about the problems with the current face of martial arts. Hopefully we can all keep working to improve that.

nintai

Good article.
I also see where Bob is coming from. If you're at a traditional dojo, one where people train, with someone with a legitimate background, for their love of the art, it doesn't matter what the current trend is.

Matt__A

Agreed - my hope is that the current trend creates a better opportunity for people to find schools just like that in karate

Jackthestripper

I liked that collage you made, it sums it up really well :)

There's a chain of Martial arts schools in Western Australia called Cobra Martial Arts... 5 years ago they were teaching 'a blend of Tae Kwon Do and Karate,' (They didn't specify what type) and now are teaching their own system, well, look for yourself.

http://www.cobramartialarts.com.au/

It's the paragraph right under the family where everyone has a black belt.

This would be the type of school you're referring to, right?

Matt__A

Idon't know that particular chain, but it does seem as if they have some of the familiar symptoms.

Bob

Do we need saving that bad?

Matt__A

You might be in good shape Bob, but wouldn't you like to see more students with the opportunity to experience good training?

Limit67

Good read.. I study karate and have been almost ashamed to say that I do it for the simple fact that 99% of people believe it to be the crappy mcdojo or gymnastics kind. Although I'm a fan of MMA, as a SPORT, I couldn't be happier as a trainee standpoint that a lot of these mcdojos will start to fall apart/convert.

narda

Good post. Personally, I can understand the anger and sadness of the old-timers because the 'boom and bust' cycle of 'commercial karate' siphoned off students. On the other hand, now that all the sturm und strang had moved on, what I see still standing in the dust are those that never left. The small dojos, one or two steadfast teachers and students, the solitaries that kept on.

The story is still being written on good karate...never lose hope.

Matt__A

Well said Narda - and it's up to us to decide where the next chapter of that story will go.

bobpatteson

You are very right about one thing: "when the next big thing hits".

Matt__A

I'll take it! One good point is enough for me, haha.

Martial Development

It's one more reason not to shut down the McDojos. The worst students have to go somewhere, after all, and I don't really want them standing next to me.

Matt__A

hahaha - nice one Chris.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Subscribe to Feed

Interview: Bruce Heilman, 9th Dan Okinawa Kenpo Karate and Kobudo

Gojushiho Kata Step-Toss Bunkai

I Talk With My Hands

Eku Bo Fighting Theory and Application

The Perpetual Need For Self Defense

How to Counter Joint Locks, Arm Bars, and Body Controls